In many electronic systems on a vehicle, including those on spacecraft (e.g., satellites) or electric vehicles, the efficient cooling of electronic components and other heat sources has become a significant problem. With the advent of large-scale integrated circuit (IC) modules containing many thousands of circuit elements, it has become possible to pack large numbers of electronic components together within a very small volume. These integrated circuit modules generate significant amounts of heat during the course of their normal operation. Since most solid state devices are sensitive to excessive temperatures, a solution to the problem of the generation of heat by large scale IC's in close proximity to one another has become of increasing concern in the industry.
Current heat transfer systems have proven to be inadequate for removing the high levels of heat generated by heat sources such as ICs on spacecraft at a low enough thermal resistance and at a sufficiently fast rate. Thus, there has developed a need to more efficiently remove heat from electronics systems such as those on spacecraft.